Playground Winter Festival 2017

Event 7 Champion: Jordan Saccucci

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It took 26 levels of play for Jordan Saccucci to best a field of 145 and emerge as the Event 7 champion. The $140,650 prize-pool generated for this event was divided into two parts – half was reserved for the payouts, and the other half was awarded through $500 bounty chips.

The top 15 secured a cash-prize in the payouts, but players were also awarded a $500 bonus every time they eliminated a player. This structure in turn generated a lot of action, as there was a considerable amount of money available to be won throughout the entirety of the tournament.

Mounzer Awada went on a rampage early in the event, picking up a handful of bounties along the way. Mid-way though the day, he slowed down his pace as other players began catching up to his chip count, but once play neared the money-bubble, he turn on beast-mode once again and collected a few more knockouts along the way to his 4th place finish.

Paul Mohorea arrived at the final table as the chip-leader after mistakingly getting involved in a huge 3-way pot when play was in-the-money, however a few misfortunate hands on the final table saw him take 6th place.

Dustin Melanson pulled a few miracles out of the bag in the final table, and spun up his short stack to carry him all the way into 3rd place.

Once heads-up play started, Omid Shahbazian held over 2/3 of the chips in play, however Jordan came from behind in two big hands to win it all, taking home the stunning Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy for his victory.

On the first hand, Jordan bested 10 of Spades 10 of Diamonds with his Ace of Clubs 9 of Hearts to flip the stacks. Now with 2/3 of the chips in play, he 4-bet shoved with Ace of Diamonds 10 of Hearts and was met with a call from King of Clubs King of Diamonds. He found the card he was looking for on the turn as the dealer rung out a 6 of Diamonds 4 of Spades 2 of Clubs Ace of Spades 9 of Clubs board, ending the tournament in the process.

Omid took home 6 bounty chips along with his $12,925 2nd place prize, while Jordan cashed in 11 bounties and a first place prize of $17,000.

Congratulations!

Event 7 Champion: Jordan Saccucci – $17,000.00 (plus 11 bounty chips of $500 each)

Event 7 runner-up: Omid Shahbazian – $12,925.00 (plus 6 bounty chips of $500 each)

Omid Shahbazian

Last hand of play

Saccucci wins the first big showdown

  • Level: 26
  • Small Blind: 20K
  • Big Blind: 40K
  • Ante: 5K
  • Chip Average: 1.8M
  • Remaining: 2
  • Entries: 145

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Chips went back and forth for the first few hands of heads-up without any considerable change to the overall chip counts, until a recent hand saw Jordan Saccucci double-up into the lead.

Omid and Jordan clicked it back a few times before the all-in / call happened pre-flop, with Omid as the big favourite holding 10 of Spades 10 of Diamonds versus Ace of Clubs 9 of Hearts. Jordan paired his ace on the Ace of Hearts 2 of Clubs 7 of Spades King of Spades 8 of Diamonds board to earn the double-up, and his 1.1 million stack has grown to 2.2 million.

Heads-up: Omid Shahbazian vs Jordan Saccucci

  • Level: 25
  • Small Blind: 15K
  • Big Blind: 30K
  • Ante: 5K
  • Chip Average: 1.8M
  • Remaining: 2
  • Entries: 145

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Event 7 is down to 2 players – Omid Shahbazian and Jordan Saccucci are in a duel for the title, the trophy and the cash that comes with it all!

Omid starts the heads-up match with the chip advantage, as his 2,540,000 stack more than doubles the 1,085,000 of Jordan. Anything can happen in this game however. Stay tuned to find out who wins!

Good luck gentlemen!

Melanson ends his run in 3rd

  • Level: 25
  • Small Blind: 15K
  • Big Blind: 30K
  • Ante: 5K
  • Chip Average: 1.8M
  • Remaining: 2
  • Entries: 145

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After a wild final table for Dustin Melanson, where he came from behind a handful of times to stay in the game, he was just recently eliminated in 3rd place.

After Jordan folded his button, chip-leader Omid open-shoved from the small blind. Dustin took a moment to go over his options, but finally elected to make the call, putting his 535K stack at risk.

Omid: King of Clubs 5 of Clubs
Dustin: Ace of Hearts 10 of Spades

Omid caught a pair on the King of Diamonds 3 of Hearts 6 of Spades 4 of Spades 4 of Clubs board to bring the event down to heads-up play.

3rd place: Dustin Melanson – $9,500.00

Dustin Melanson

Awada taken out by Shahbazian

  • Level: 25
  • Small Blind: 15K
  • Big Blind: 30K
  • Ante: 5K
  • Chip Average: 1.2M
  • Remaining: 3
  • Entries: 145

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Mounzer Awada has been throwing in his bounty chip into play around once an orbit in the last 3 orbits -every time his bet remained uncalled, and every time he flashed an ace afterwards. On the fourth of these moves, his 626K stack was met with a call from Omid Shahbazian, who had him covered.

Mounzier: 7 of Clubs 7 of Spades
Shahbazian: 9 of Diamonds 9 of Spades

Board: 3 of Diamonds Ace of Diamonds 9 of Clubs 10 of Diamonds 8 of Clubs

Mounzier managed to accumulate 9 bounty chips to go along with his 4th place finish, taking full advantage of the structure. Omid now leads the final 3 with 1.7 million in front of him, Jordan has 1.2 million, and Dustin holds 700K.

4th place: Mounzier Awada – $7,200.00

Mounzer Awada

3 streets of value

  • Level: 24
  • Small Blind: 12K
  • Big Blind: 24K
  • Ante: 4K
  • Chip Average: 905K
  • Remaining: 4
  • Entries: 145

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Omid Shahbazian opened to 48K from the button, and found himself heads-up versus Jordan Saccucci. Jordan check-called 30K on the 9 of Spades 6 of Diamonds 2 of Hearts flop, check-called another 84K on the 3 of Diamonds turn before finally being met with a 244K bet on the 4 of Spades river. He tanked for a minute or two before finally making the call – only to see Omid backed into the nuts with 5 of Spades 7 of Spades.